deliberation book

John Gastil of the University of Washington and I are co-editing a book on deliberative processes. We have the chapter authors lined up and are about to sign a contract. Each chapter will describe a concrete experiment that involves citizens in structured discussions of public issues or problems. A non-exhaustive list of these experiments would include the National Issues Forums, Study Circles, Deliberative Polling, and America Speaks in the US; several online experiments; and very important non-US cases such as the participatory budging process in Porto Allegre, Brazil (in which very large citizens’ councils actually allocate a portion of the city’s budget).

Peter: Recently I participated in a National Issues Forums introductory training. It whetted my appetite for learning more about that model in particular and deliberative processes in general. I look forward to seeing this book when it is available.